Fallout: New Remnant
by Mecharic
Summary: In the build up to the Second Great War, those few people on Remnant who possessed Silver Eyes were specifically placed into a very special Vault. This Vault was supposed to keep them alive until the War ended and the world recovered. It failed. Now the sole survivor of Vault 111 must learn how to survive in a drastically changed world from her own. Ruby R. as the Sole Survivor.
1. Vault 111

[BLAAAAN BLAAAAAN BLAAAAN BLAAAAAN] "System Failure: Cyrostatis Chambers 1-12. Enacting Emergency Dethaw Process." [BLAAAAN BLAAAAAN BLAAAAN BLAAAAAN]

The girl, a child really, woke with a sudden, violent jolt of cold so deep she didn't think she could remember what warm felt like. It was painful, this cold. Painful like that time she'd burned her hand on the stove, but cold too. That was the only sensation.

Then, fear. [BLAAAAN BLAAAAAN BLAAAAN BLAAAAAN]

An attempt to breath, but no air to breath in. Breath, lost. Panic sets in, deep and dangerous. Knowing the danger of panic, but not yet able to control herself, the child instead attempted to break out of whatever was holding her in. But it was strong, and even colder than she was.

Air. Oum blessed air. [BLAAAAN BLAAAAAN BLAAAAN BLAAAAAN]

Breathing was still difficult. The air was cold, and felt… stale, almost. But even so, it was better than nothing. Great gasps of air, this child took in. As she tilted forward toward the air, she fell outward, the cold hard material no longer locking her into place.

Pain. Head, hands, arms. [BLAAAAN BLAAAAAN BLAAAAN BLAAAAAN]

She had tried to catch herself, but wasn't able to draw the strength needed to stop her fall. Knocked out of her fear and confusion, she suddenly remembers that she had eyes. They opened to a scene of chaos and confusion. A small, low ceilinged room made of gray and blue materials containing a number of large, partially open pod structures. 'Cryostatis units…' her sluggish mind told her. Lights flashed everywhere, an alarm was going off, and she heard an automated voice say something she couldn't understand. She groaned, remembering she had a voice too, and tried to push herself up onto her feet. Failing, she at least managed to roll over onto her back.

[BLAAAAN BLAAAAAN BLAAAAN BLAAAAAN]

Her own pod, empty, was at her feet. Above her head, another pod, partially open, was venting steam as the supercooled air met the chilly air of the facility. 'Vault… this is a Vault… 111…' the child thought as her sluggish mind began to start moving at a reasonable speed again. She frowned. There was definitely something important she was forgetting, but what could it be? And why was it so-

"Mom! MOM!" [BLAAAAN BLAAAAAN BLAAAAN BLAAAAAN]

The child found strength she hadn't known she possessed, and managed to crawl towards the cryostasis unit in front of her, the one across from her own. She pulled herself up alongside the partially open pod, and hammered the green 'Open' button. The pod opened, and a woman fell out. She was around 5'7", with dark red hair almost black and pale, porcelain skin. The woman's eyes were closed, her face blank. The girl partially fell, partially lunged, trying to catch the woman, her mother, but failing to do so, instead landing next to her. She reached a feeble hand out. "MOM! Wake up, please wake up!"

Cold. Too cold. [BLAAAAN BLAAAAAN BLAAAAN BLAAAAAN]

The woman didn't respond, not even a slight stirring of her eyes or body. The child remained, trying to wake her, for several hours. Long after the alarms had ended and the voice had said "Emergency Dethaw Process Complete." and noted "11 fatalities. 1 survivor." the child remained, trying to wake the woman who would never wake up again. "Mom…"

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Sitting up, no longer able to cry and now getting thirsty and needing to move for warmth, the child quietly processed how badly everything had gone wrong. They were supposed to wake up again, 25 years after the bombs fell. The world would have started to heal by then, or so Vault-Tec had claimed. So why was everyone dead except her? Was it her huntress training? But her mother had been a huntress as well, it couldn't be that. Well. These questions could wait until after she had found a drink. Tears would not serve her anymore.

The child got up, looking around herself. There, that was the exit. Walking over to it, she found the quick exit seemed to be sealed. She would need to go the long way. Looking towards the faculty area, she spotted salvation: a water fountain. Rushing over, she found that processed water had never tasted quite so excellent. As she looked around, she found a crowbar. Smiling sadly to herself, she wondered what must have become of her Uncle. He hadn't made it to a Vault, after all. The smile faded as she realized he was almost certainly dead, along with everyone else she'd ever known and loved. Hefting the crowbar, she went in search of her old weapon.

As she moved through the faculty portion, she found what looked like the remains of a scuffle. No bodies, not yet, but certainly not a peaceful situation. Maybe the staff had rushed to try and figure out what was going wrong? "Anyone here?!" Silence was the only answer… except. "What is…" A slight scuffling sound, a sort of squeak/shriek sound, and then the largest roach she'd ever seen leapt at her face.

Acting on instinct, she whipped the crowbar across the air in front of her and suckered the roach with so much force it was cleaved in half even as it splattered across the wall. Greenish ichor drained from the body, and the little warrior fought the urge to vomit. "Gross by any standard." was all she said though. Continuing, the little warrior wandered her way through the abandoned faculty part of the Vault. She found a security baton, and stashed it for later use if needed.

Then she opened a door and found the first skeleton.

Freezing into place, she stared at the skeleton. If not for the raw trauma of holding her mother's cold corpse, the skeleton and the bloodstain would probably have been sufficient for her to have a mental breakdown. As it was, it too the little warrior a few minutes to fully process the scene. The skeleton was wedged into a corner between the door and the wall, with a massive bloodstain across the wall and door, clearly from whatever had left the skull a ruined mess.

The child carefully stepped over the skeleton, calm mostly due to shock rather than self-control, and looked to the rest of the room. Three more skeletons left tribute to the firefight that had broken out in the room. "What happened here? Am I really alone?" The child shivered, but not from the cold, and moved forward. Her goal? The pistol on the table and the ammunition sitting next to it, all seemingly unused during the firefight. The skeleton sitting, head pitched forward, was probably going to use the gun but died before it had the chance. Well, their loss, her gain.

Holding a pistol made the child feel a great deal safer, but she switched back to her crowbar for now. No use wasting bullets, right? She continued seeking the lockers where her stuff would have been left. Along the way, she found several more of the giant roach things, but none of them could stop or slow her. She was, after all, a huntress in training. Something on this level didn't even reach the tier of beowolf. Then, turning a corner, she found it. The lockers.

The child rushed forward, seeking her sweatheart and hoping against hope that it was still there. Upon reaching the cage with the lockers, she promptly found the lock to be very much sealed. "Gotta find the keys…" The trek seeking out the keys would occupy her for the next hour and a half, and when she returned… Her precious weapon was locked away behind a password and 2" thick plexiglass & steel plating, along with her mother's dual warglaves, both chained with gloves and a few other bits. "Noooo… I need you, sweatheart!" Frustrated, the child tried to punch her way through the wall-mounted container, only to hear a distinct popping sound in her hand and wrist followed by agonizing pain.

"Ah DAMN!" Startling even herself with the sudden use of an admittedly limited swear word, the child fell back, holding her hand and focusing her Aura on it. She should have known that would end badly, Aura could only strengthen her existing bones, it wouldn't stop her joints from being displaced. As the Aura pushed the joins back into place and swiftly healed the damage, the child sighed with relief. "I'll be back, sweatheart. I promise. And I'll bring a hacker with me when I return." Some may find it strange to talk to a weapon, but not the child.

Looking through the rest of the lockers (only the weapons lockers had been caged), she found her red cloak, dust woven and waterproofed and excellent for sleeping wrapped inside of, as well as more ammunition, more weapons, and even a few long knives that she could definitely make use of. The child also found a backpack that was designed to ride close to her back, lower down to maintain balance. That would be incredibly useful for her, and she swiftly loaded it up with everything she could carry. Moving back through the facilities, she also sought out food and water, but found nothing but empty packets and cans of both.

No real options left in the Vault, other than slowly dying of hunger or finding out what those roaches taste like, the child headed towards to final exit. Arriving there, she found the last of the battleground. A skeleton with bloodstains leading to it, a Pip-Boy attached to the arm, left no doubts that the shootout had ensured nobody escaped the Vault. A few more of the roach things attacked her here, but she was able to easily handle them with her knives. A moment of hesitation before she tried to remove the Pip-Boy without causing any damage, which failed when the entire skeletal arm fell off the rest and then out of the Pip-Boy and onto the ground with a clatter.

"Sorry, but I need this more than you do. Uh. Rest in peace, if you can." The child turned to the Pip-Boy and put it on her arm. A few moments later, it was running and she was ready to leave. Putting the plug into the socket and turning the key, she reactivated the Vault machinery and waited for the platform to lower down to where she was. It took a fairly short period of time, but during this time she was able to change the settings on the Pip-Boy to suit her better – red light, synced to her own abilities and Aura, among other small details. Looking up, she saw the platform waiting. It was time to see what was left of the world she'd once lived in.

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As the platform rose toward the surface, the warrior child squinted. The sky still seemed more or less blue, though maybe with a slightly yellow tint that hadn't been there before. As she got closer, she began to see dead trees swaying in a wind she couldn't yet feel, and she heard a hollow whistling sound as wind passed through their dead, leafless branches. The sound alone felt dead and empty, and did not bode well for the world the warrior child was going to be living in. As the platform reached the top, the she saw for the first time the glorious devastation that was her new world…

From the top of the hill, through the branches of dead trees, the ruin of the world could be seen in full. Sprawling to the east, the once-great City of Vale could be seen. Vast leaning towers, black stained smokestacks, and dirty highrises all enshrouded in a strange fog that seemed to almost have a green tint. To the north of the city was a vast glowing cloud of smog, dust, and flickering lights, all of it resting where Beacon Academy had once stood as a symbol of pride and power. South of the city, ocean sat as a drab brown-blue expanse of water, a few ancient ships resting at angles to the waves. Closer to her, dead forests extended outward for a few miles, broken by roads, buildings, and a few towns… including the dilapidated ruins of her own hometown, Patch.

"Well Ruby… welcome home. I guess."

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 **A/N This is the minor update to Ch1 as part of the Rewrite of the story. Ch 2-4 were mostly/entirely redone, Ch1 just had some errors I didn't notice the first time around. Wish me luck, and as always feel free to Review and whatnot. More on the rewrite in Ch2's A/N.**

 **Cya!**


	2. I'm Home?

**Hey, just want to state, sorry for the long break from this. Got suckered by writers block, then by life, and when I came back I took one look at this story and basically said "holy crap, I dove headfirst into this" and so I'm basically doing a full rewrite. With the exception of Chapter 1, which only has a new name and some minor editing for errors that I found rereading, I'm rewriting the story. Again, sorry for the delay. It's all my fault, don't hate meeeee... *fades into obscurity* Longer A/N at the bottom with some idle thoughts.**

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Looking around, the new world Ruby had found herself in seemed rather… dead. She didn't know how long she had been frozen for, only that it had to have been a fairly long time. She knew it had been a while because of the heavily rusted Vault Door, the dilapidated cars and prefab buildings, and the fact that the trees had changed positions in the time since she was last here. This last one was difficult to confirm, but Ruby had always prided herself on her eyes, and wasn't about to doubt them now.

"So, at least long enough for new trees to grow and then die. Trees live around 80 years, I think… or was it 120? Whatever, it's probably been about a century or so since I was last awake."

That decided, Ruby looked over to where her home had been. It was difficult to see from the hilltop, even with most of the trees being leafless, due to the density of the undergrowth and due to the hillside. It seemed that her Vault had sunk a little after being built, which was interesting but unimportant to her survival at this time. Taking a deep breath, Ruby stepped off the Vault Door. As she did, she suddenly felt a powerful gust of wind, cold and smelling of a bitter, acrid autumn scent. Ruby shivered.

"What a welcome, huh? First step off, nearly get blown off my feet."

She pulled her cloak around her, thankful that the durable dust-infused article had been easy to access during her looting spree in the Vault. Having made her first step, Ruby took another, and another, into her new world. Before gathering the confidence to travel beyond the Vault Door compound, a little fenced in area that felt safer even if it didn't look safer, Ruby investigated several containers to find some food ' _Of course that survived. Probably has enough preservatives to last a thousand years or more_ ' and some purified water that could keep her going for a little bit. She knew she would need to find her own source of food and water eventually, but for now finding out more about this world was much more important.

Stepping carefully over a handful of skeletons left behind by those who hadn't made it to the Vault in time (or hadn't been allowed in, sadly), Ruby started down an eroded and overgrown dirt path that looked to lead to her old home. As she went, she kept a careful lookout around her for Grimm of any sort. With only small pistols and short range blunt objects, Ruby didn't think she'd fare too well against anything powerful, but could probably hold her own against a pack of Beowolf. Worst case scenario, she would just run away with her semblance. These thoughts dancing in her mind, Ruby reached an old rotted footbridge. ' _How is this still intact?_ ' Not wanting to question good fortune, Ruby took advantage of the footbridge to cross the rather noxious looking stream it bridged.

As she stepped upon it, however, she suddenly heard an angry buzzing sound from below. ' _That sounds like- Rapier Wasps!_ ' Bolting forward and grabbing the crowbar from her belt, Ruby rotated on one leg to see… about a hundred thumbnail sized rapier wasps buzzing up from under the old footbridge. Startled at how small these were, it took Ruby a moment to realize that they were even Grimm, and not just black-colored wasps. As she stumbled backward, Ruby realized the futility of trying to fight such small enemies, and instead wrapped herself inside her cloak and fell prone to the ground while focusing on happier thoughts of happier times. The buzzing rushed around her, but the wasps could not find a way into her cloak due to the dust fused into it. After a few minutes, the wasps lost interest in the now-positive mass of red, and returned to their nest. Ruby didn't move to stand up again for about 20 minutes though, partially out of fear but mostly out of confusion. These wasps weren't nearly as aggressive as they should have been, considering they were Grimm. The world had changed more than she'd expected, and Ruby did not like it.

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As she crept back to her feet and hesitantly looked around, fully expecting some kind of overgrown Queen Waspe to reveal itself, Ruby sighed rather heavily. That had been both unexpected and a wakeup call – the world is still dangerous even after however many years she'd been asleep. More cautious now, Ruby continued along the old footpath, which was not quite as overgrown as it probably should have been. Just another detail Ruby was noticing now that she was paying closer attention to the world around her. Pausing, Ruby actually turned around and looked back, her eyes focusing on a small symbol on a tree that leaned overhead drunkenly. The symbol was crude, worn, and faded, but unmistakably a basic "Grimm ahead" warning.

Feeling far less comfortable with her situation than before, Ruby continued along the footpath. A few minutes of traversing undergrowth, dead fallen trees (worn by others having walked over them before her), and hearing the occasional rustle of something alive but small in the forest around her, Ruby's nerves were more than a little frayed. The next rustle was a bit louder than the rest and resulted in a thrown knife that hit… nothing. Whatever was making the noises was either fast enough to dodge or small enough to be missed. And now Ruby was down a knife, because she was most certainly not going after that one in this forest.

"Stupid…"

Ruby muttered a few self-aimed obscenities, but decided to get to the hopeful safety of her old town. Maybe she'd find something of value there, even if only a few walls to make a lean-to against for some level of shelter. Moving with a bit more speed, Ruby swiftly reached an ancient overgrown mass of dark green and brown that she instantly identified as that ugly hedge that encircled her home town and the wood palisade wall that was within. She vaguely remembered being told the hedge was meant to make the town less noticeable to Grimm that wandered too close, though she personally felt that the watchtowers and palisade would give the town away. Not that they would now, considering the hedge had grown massive over the years, turning into a huge mass of thick, sturdy, evil plant life that almost literally oozed "none are welcome here" by merely existing. It had grown so massive and untamed that Ruby couldn't see the old palisade anymore, though looking closely she could see what appeared to be a still standing, albeit covered in vines and filth.

All in all, it was not a hope-inspiring sight. Not that Ruby had any alternative options, of course. It was Patch, Vault 111, or the wilderness – and who knew what could be living in the wilderness. _"Or in the town…_ " a small part of her mind noted, oh so helpfully coinciding with what sounded like a wolf or beowolf howling in the distance. Ruby shivered, glared at the atrocity that had once been a hedge, and then gathered herself and crouched. Her goal? To reach the palisade and balance herself on the assumedly worn tips. Her reality? The Hedge had grown so massive it had overwhelmed the top of the palisade, resulting in Ruby being trapped in a tangle of thorny vegetation that she swore was out to cause her harm. One very undignified thrashing-started fall into the old town, and Ruby swiftly stood up, knife in one hand, gun in the other.

Arrayed out before her was a vast host of… nothing. The town was empty, the houses derelict at best, completely collapsed at worst. Ruby frowned. She could have sworn she'd felt eyes on her when she arrived. Deciding to keep her weapons out and ready, Ruby began to walk into the town from where she'd landed between two houses – one a long-fallen heap, the other an empty shell with tired and worn furniture that were far worse for the wear. Entering the town proper, Ruby looked down the old street, first one way, then the next.

"Ok, no cars co-" … *sigh* "I cannot believe I just did that on instinct alone."

Despite her reason having been rather flawed for her situation, the results were still of value. The town, which had consisted of about 2 dozen homes, a general store, town hall, a guard house, five guard towers, a central plaza (circular), an emergency bunker for Grimm incursions, and two gates (one on each end), was empty. All four of the cars that had been owned by the town were lying disused and rusted, three of them near each other at one of the gates, with two of them crashed into each other, abandoned with the doors open. The fourth was precariously balanced over a sinkhole, looking for all the world like it was about to fall. Hell, Ruby could see the damned thing rocking slowly over the pit. Sheesh. How or why it was sitting in the middle of the town didn't matter much. What mattered was getting high enough to quickly survey the entire town without exposing herself to anything in the sky.

Ruby frowned for a moment, then chose to climb onto the roof of the intact house she'd landed next to, before jumping from there into one of the remaining watchtowers. Panting slightly at the effort, Ruby swiftly took into account the tower itself. The inside of the tower, aside from leaves and debris piled up by any number of years and countless storms, was empty of animals or Grimm. Growing out of the dirt piled in the corners and along the edges of the tower were tufts of grass, small tree shoots, and even the occasional flower. The ladder to this tower seemed to have collapsed years ago, and that had kept people out for the most part. Having assured herself that the tower was safe and wouldn't collapse on her, Ruby turned to survey her home town, the place she grew up.

The houses were in varying states of decay, ranging from completely collapsed like the one she'd entered next to all the way to just rusty, with faded paint and cracked walls. The general store was in very good condition, having been built to withstand Grimm attacks due to housing large amounts of food, water, and materials that people would need during emergencies. The town hall, on the other hand, was partially collapsed – about a third of it completely fallen into itself, another third or so looking dubious at best, while the remaining third would still have been condemned by any sane being. The old guard house was intact – stone, cement, and plexiglass windows all perfectly preserved. The door was even still sealed shut, though being a steel door built into a steel frame that made sense. The bunker was similarly undamaged, though the door was open for reasons known only to those who had opened it. Of the five guard towers, three still stood fully (though covered in vines) while two had collapsed over time – one of them due to a fallen tree. The palisade, however, was fully intact, having withstood a century or so of disuse with surprising ease. The Hedge, cursed be its name, still encircled the entire town, growing up over the walls a little bit and drooping down inside them.

As for the gates? Well, one of them was closed and so overgrown by The Hedge that it would probably never open again. The other had the three cars stuck inside it and was heavily overgrown, likely hiding the town from outside view for years upon years. Ruby wondered if she should consider that a blessing or a curse. On the one hand, she had the town to herself and doubted even the Grimm would have bothered trying to force their way into it any time recently. On the other hand, that meant that there was nobody here she could talk to, not even travelers or nomads taking shelter within. With a sigh, Ruby made her way over to a broken window on the tower, crawled out, and definitely didn't fall out of the tower with a squeal. Definitely not that. Back on the ground, Ruby decided to head to the Bunker first. Maybe she'd find something useful inside, or if she was very lucky, a functional generator with a working water system.

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Upon reaching the Bunker, Ruby slowly crept to the door. She didn't know what was inside, only that it was shrouded by darkness and smelled like Vault 111 – which didn't bode well at all. With an enduring sigh, Ruby activated her Pip-Boy's flashlight feature and stepped inside.

-SQUEALSH-

Ruby tried and failed to resist the urge to shudder down her back at the sheer horror of the sound her foot had just made. Somewhere between the sound her arm had made when she'd broken it when she was twelve and the sound of stepping in one of Zwei's droppings. Looking down and not even a little bit relishing the thought of what she stepped in, Ruby froze into place. She was looking at a partially eaten, partially rotted corpse of a dog. A slight sound of rustling, a brush of cloth on stone, and Ruby was already launching herself out of the Bunker door and onto the street.

"WRRRRAAAAAAAAAGHRRRR!"

Charging out after her, but far less swiftly, was what Ruby could only describe as a zombie. The zombie, having lunged forward expecting to hit a target, fell and rolled across the ground a little before stumbling back into a low crouched stance. As both the zombie and Ruby paused to regard each other in the light, Ruby noticed that it was small – a bit shorter than she was – and wearing what looked like a tattered dress of some sort. The zombie had yellow-brown skin, crinkled, and pocketed with little pits and scars, which seemed to barely stretch enough to cover its entire body. The fingers were thin, with overgrown nails the same color as the skin, one hand held what looked like a stuffed Ursa. But by far the most terrifying part of the creature was its face – drawn back lips, very visible teeth that were all too human, and a set of yellowed eyes that looked at Ruby with a terrifyingly hungry gaze.

There was no thought or intellect in this gaze. Only a hunger that shivered Ruby to her core. Hunger like that of the Grimm, mindless and overwhelming. There was a madness to them as well, and a hint of pain and fear. Ruby once again shivered as the yellow eyes held hers for a full three seconds… and then the zombie lunged once again. Acting mostly on instinct, Ruby jumped back while pulling out the crowbar. The zombie continued its charge this time, and arrived at Ruby right as she activated her semblance and whipped the crowbar around towards its body.

-CRACK!- "AAAAAUUUURRRRUUUAA!"

The zombie's arm broke from the semblance and aura enhanced blow that spun the entire monster around on its legs, causing it to drop to the ground moaning and… sobbing… from the pain. Ruby's eyes widened and in a moment of panic she stepped forward, lowering the crowbar and reaching out an arm.

"Oh my Oum I'm so sor-" "RAAAWG!"

The zombie, either taking advantage of her dropped guard or just lashing out, snagged Ruby's arm and clenched its hand. The uneven nails bit into her skin for the moment before Ruby's aura flared into action and protected her, leaving slight cuts and just a tiny bit of blood. The monster pulled Ruby towards its face and made to bite down on her shoulder. The other arm reached towards Ruby and then…

-BANG!-

The monsters face blew out away from Ruby as she, once again using her semblance, fired the her 10mm directly into its eye. The monster jerked back, but its arm was still very much clenched onto Ruby's upper arm, pulling Ruby over with it. As she fell onto the zombie, Ruby felt the jaw naming at the area between her shoulder and her neck, aura preventing her from taking damage but not from feeling to disturbing sensation of a person trying to tear into her neck. The monster stopped moving a moment later, and Ruby pulled herself out of the now-limp grip. As she stumbled back, she saw the free hand… and the teddy bear still tightly gripped within.

…

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Ruby didn't know how long she sat there, having fallen to her knees when the adrenalin had worn off. What she did know was that there was something furry and warm and with a wet nose nuzzling against her hand. Ruby blinked owlishly before turning her gaze down next to her. A short body, lithe and strong even under the fluffy warm fur, was a short dog. The dog was brown and white, with stubby legs and large, friendly eyes. Ruby stared at the dog with a confused and almost fearful gaze. The dog merely regarded her with an even and friendly gaze. It barked once, and Ruby was reminded of her old corgi, Zwei. That was all it took for her to lean down and pull the short dog into a tight hug as she finally let herself fully comprehend what had happened earlier that very day. To her surprise, the dog didn't struggle or bite, but instead snuggled her face and licked her, as if it too had been pulled out of time and dropped into this chaotic world.

The snuggling snapped Ruby out of her slight daze as she realized she knew nothing about this dog. A moment later it was carefully set on the ground, looking up at her as it wagged its tail. Ruby observed the small dog for a moment, nodded at it.

"Thank you, uh… Lil'Fella. I… I needed that, I think."

Looking around, Ruby noted that the day had started to end. The sun was on the horizon, long shadows cast out from it, while the shattered moon was hanging far above in the red-purple sky. Thin clouds, dusty and dry, streaked across the sky and captured the sunset with yellow-orange colors. In a word, beautiful, despite the damage and the days horrors. Ruby sighed heavily, and turned to the… zombie-thing. It hadn't moved from its spot on the ground, and in fact was already a target for ants and a number of small bug creatures, like half foot long mosquitoes. Ruby swallowed a bit of bile, and then heard a dog barking.

Turning towards it, Ruby found herself looking at a whole little pack of corgi-something hybrid dogs, ranging in color from brown & white like the one that had been with her to pure whites, browns, blacks, and grays. These dogs, while short with legs that only stood them about a foot off the ground, were large, about twice as long from shoulder to rear as they were tall at the same shoulder. Fluffy, but lean and clearly survivors, they had more pronounced snouts, larger jaws, and a long tail trailing fur. If Ruby had to guess, they were a hybrid of corgis and shepherds of some sort. Regardless, they seemed friendly enough, and the brown and white one that was with her barked once and walked over, before turning and looking at her.

Ruby smiled a little, and followed the dogs back to their home. Turns out, their home was her father's study in the little house they'd once called home together. Ruby felt she should be sad to see that, but couldn't bring herself to cry or even be upset as she sat down in a corner and was promptly drowned in short fluffy dogs. At least she wasn't alone anymore.

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[ Update: Vault-Tec Network ]

[ Vault: 111 ]

[ Status: Cryogenics Offline]

[ Notice: Vault Door Activated at 21:34 ]

[ End Update ]

In three very different locations across the Old Kingdom, three very different people regarded the same small bit of information. One blue set cold and calculating, the green eyes confused and intrigued, and the final set artificial and full of a hope that had been dead for over a century. None of them would know just how this single little update would change the world, but change the world it would... for better or for worse.

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 **So. That's the new Chapter 2: A Home Reknown. I know that isn't how it's spelled, it's called "Artistic License" or somesuch. I know I said I'd only be doing Ruby's perspective, but frankly this was more fun so I did it. Can you guess who's who? Well you're probably going to be wrong! Mwahahaa!**

 **Now, with regards to the future chapters. In my original version, which I can reupload if I get enough people asking to see it, the chapters were generally shorter than this and were paced faster (ei: poorly) with Ch 2 ending on a very different note that this version of the story. Basically I crammed like four times the events in about half the words. And so I changed it. Certain events will still happen, but other events are being erased entirely from the story. I also decided to add some good ole' scenery porn, because I felt that the early parts of Fallout 4 were always the most fun - that is, the "first time" seeing places and being given the chance to compare the Before & After of Sanctuary Hills. So I decided to give a bit more detail on locations from now on. Half of Fallout is the atmosphere & post-nuclear devastation, after all. Anyway, hope you enjoyed the New & Improved Chapter 2! **

**As always, feel free to review and whatnot. Next Chapter will come when it comes. I'm slow, a bit lazy, a bit busy, and it's the holidays. I'll see what I can do.**


	3. A Road Remembered

**And we're back! I know, I'm early by my standards, but I did hope to get this up over the holiday. Ah, it's good to have had dreams, right? Pfft.**

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Ruby woke with a start, panting. She couldn't quite remember what she had been dreaming, but from the cold sweat, the panting, and her racing heartbeat, she could only assume it had been a nightmare. Looking around, she noted that most of the short dogs had left, and that the sun was peaking in through the ceiling. She must've spent a good portion of the morning asleep, something she was unused to. Most morning had started with her mother wa- _"No. Stop it. Don't think about that stuff anymore."_ Ruby berated herself, before standing up with a soft noise and stretching to loosen her muscles a bit.

Patch looked just as dismissal in the morning as it had in the afternoon, but the shadows were pointing a different direction, so there was that. Ruby turned towards the bunker, and saw only scraps and a few bones left of the… thing she had fought the day before. She decided not to question where it all went, and instead focused on what was most important: food and water. She would start travelling, but needed to know she'd have food to eat and safe water to drink before she could risk any long trips away from the Vault.

Rummaging through the general store resulted in several purified water bottles, some Dust, and a handful of ration bars that Ruby knew from experience had all the texture and taste of cardboard but would keep her going for a few days each. Studiously avoiding the old bunker, Ruby went up to the sealed guard house and peeked in through the windows. With the exception of yet another skeleton, the building appeared empty. Ruby didn't even bother trying the door, instead pulling out her crowbar and taking an experimental swing at the plexiglass window.

With a dull thunk, the plexiglass completely ignored the direct hit from the crowbar. "Typical really." Ruby decided to try using the crowbar the way it was meant to be used, and started prying at the window. They had been designed to keep out stray bullets and smaller Grimm, not a determined Huntress with a crowbar, and so within about half an hour the window popped open with a loud crack. As Ruby grinned at her success, she also activated the pip-boys light and considered the inside of the guardhouse. Empty, as she had expected, but with a surprising amount of food, water, and weapons. One very heavy backpack and a basic hunting rifle later, Ruby was ready to start seeking out survivors in the wasteland she had found herself a part of.

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Navigating the only remaining gate without hurting herself proved rather easy – Ruby just used her semblance to jump from car to car – and without much in the way of fanfare, Ruby was on her way. The road that would take her to Ansel was old, sorely in need of repaving and repair, and overgrown with weeds and even a few trees that had sprouted in cracks and grown old, but it was still the easiest way to travel.

Going over what landmarks she could remember, Ruby hoped that the road hadn't changed too much in the past century or so that she'd been asleep for – she wouldn't really know the way to any of the nearby towns if it had. Looking at the deadwood surrounding her, Ruby wondered honestly how no fires had burned it out. Even with the fairly wet weather in Vale, that much deadwood was basically a crate of fire Dust waiting for a match. Pondering this with part of her mind, keeping an eye out with another part, and walking with whatever was left, Ruby made her way down the overgrown street.

Passing a few cars, mostly crashed into trees off the road, or in a few cases abandoned by their owners, Ruby wished she had one for herself to use. This road had never felt quite so long when she was in her father's car… And now she'd gone and made herself sad thinking about him. Not that it mattered much, the only Grimm Ruby had spotted since leaving the Vault were those damned wasps, and they barely counted since they were so small. Shaking her head, Ruby focused on the road through sheer force of will, and continued forward. There should be a small mechanics shop up ahead in a walled pitstop that she was hoping to scavenge for parts…

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Arriving at the mechanic's shop, Ruby found the door completely intact, closed, and with a sign saying "Store Open" on it. She also found the windows clean, with the shutters up, and the parking lot cracked, but without much in the way of debris or weeds. Some old bloodstains were just about the only sign that anything had ever even happened there over the past however-long it had been. The whole place was disorienting, to say the least, and Ruby didn't know what to think on the subject. What she DID know, was that she was going to enter the place with an added dose of caution and with her weapons out for safety.

Entering the dim shop, the first thing Ruby noticed was that there was a still functioning vending machine offering Pep-Schnee and Arca-Cola for a few lien. How it was operational after around a century was entirely beyond Ruby's knowledge, but that didn't stop her from headed over – carefully – to try it out. Tiptoeing over, Ruby pulled some very old, but surprisingly intact, lien from her pocket. Swiping the card, the machine registered the purchase, and so Ruby pressed the button, all while feeling the creepy sensation of being watched.

Glancing around her, Ruby noticed something she'd missed due to her focus on any threats as well as the machine itself: the shop was immaculate. Not clean by any standard, of course, but every item was exactly where the tags said it should be, and most of the items looked to be well cared for and maintained. Granted, some items had "sold out" signs instead – mostly food and drink items – but otherwise the place seemed completely functional. Noticing that her drink hadn't been dispensed yet, Ruby frowned at the machine.

[Machine Jammed – Please see attendant for refund.]

"Of course it's broken, it would have been far to convenient if the machine worked right?"

"Indeed! This machine hasn't cooperated in nearly eight decades! So glad to have a customer though, and you didn't even try to shoplift! Happy days!"

Ruby leapt upward and forward away from the unexpected voice with such force and momentum that she ended up on top of the vending machine, looking down in terror at… a robot? It was one of those old Atlesian Attendant Bots, or AABs, from before the bombs and the Vault. The robot was a lot worse for the wear, but still seemed fully functional, if the fact that it had spoken, moved, and was now looking at her with it's single central eye with what could only be described as worry was anything to go by. The machine had large oval body, about two feet around, with three legs evenly spread out from the machine and ending in foam wheels designed for quiet movement. There were four arms on a rotating disk piece for maximum reach and use, each of them with three joints and a different type of appendage on the end.

"Oh dear, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to give you a fright, dear customer! Do you need help down? I can offer you a complementary item of your choice as an apology for startling you, so long as it's less than 25 lien in value!"

"T-thanks for the offer of help, but I can get down myself… could you maybe back up a bit though? Thanks. As for the item, let me look around, I'll pay half its price – it was mostly my fault for not paying attention, after all."

"Well, let it never be said that I, the humble Gearwork, never turned aside a good deal! Look around the shop, see what you like! I'll be around making sure everything is in just tip-top shape! Find me when you're done!"

"Uh… okay then! I'll, uh, just be looking around. Do I get the refund on the soda?"

"Of course! Or I can check in the back to see if we have any more in stock, if you're heart is set on it?"

"That would be amazing! Thank you in advance for the help."

"Well, you are very welcome! It's nice to have a customer that doesn't shoot or try to steal from the shop. I do wish Dr. Merlot would return though. It has been nearly two hundred years since he was last in, I'm getting worried…"

Ruby blinked at what Gearwork (and wasn't that a name huh?) had said as it moved towards the back room. ' _Two hundred years? Has it really been nearly two centuries since I was last awake?'_ Shaking her head and deciding to ask Gearwork about it once she was done shopping (another thing she'd never expected when entering the shop) and let it be for now since she couldn't do anything about it. A few minutes of browsing later, Ruby arrived at the counter just in time to see Gearwork roll out from the back with bottle of Pep-Schnee in one hand and a bottle of Arca-Cola in the other.

"I forgot to ask which of the two you preferred, so I just grabbed one of each for you. I'm afraid they're rather warm, the coolers haven't worked in decades. This place is truly falling apart without the Dr. around."

"It's fine, I wasn't really expecting to find anything here anyway so the fact that I actually get a drink, even a warm one, is handy. I'll take the Arca-Cola for myself, thanks!"

"And will this be your entire purchase here?"

"Yep! I'm travelling light right now because I have a lot of distance, but one can never have too many bullets, duct tape, or basic medical supplies right? At least, I think that's right from what I've seen since waking up…"

"Yes, it is truly a sad world these days, what with all the riffraff around. I'll need to see a permit for the bullets though, they're a restricted ite- Oh, thank you. Ah, a Huntress! It's been a long time since I've seen one of your kind around, registered at least. Due to the ongoing state of emergency, I am legally obliged to give you the ammunition free of charge, as well as full access to the workshop here."

"I… I take it the emergency is the whole war situation, and the follow up?"

"Indeed. There was such chaos shortly after the bombs fell upon the world. I do hope Dr. Oobleck is okay. Ah, I told you the bullets are- "

"I'm paying anyway. I don't want to hurt your business, being the first customer you've had in… how long?"

"That hasn't simply tried to steal from the place? Nearly two centuries. Now you mention it, I do need as much income as possible. Thank you dearly, Ms. Rose, for the kindness. Can I help you with anything else?"

"Well… I'm looking for, anyone really. You wouldn't have any ideas where I can find some more people do you? Preferably ones that won't shoot at me or something."

"Yes, indeed. I can't promise they won't shoot, sadly, but I do know there are people down in old Barkwood, near the Great War Museum. Is that all?"

"Yep! Thank you very much, Mr. Gearwork! If I see Dr. Oobleck around, or any traces of him, I'll stop by and make sure you know. And if I'm ever around again, I'm a half-decent mechanic myself – maybe I can help get some of the old equipment running again eh?"

"Ah, that would be wonderful! Best of luck, Ms. Rose!"

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About an hour after leaving Gearworks Shop and three hours after leaving Patch, Ruby was nearing the top of a hill when she suddenly heard a buzzing noise. Remembering the rapier wasps from the other day, she instantly crouched down off to the left of the road while readying her pistol. No use wasting any heavy weapons fire on whatever bug was coming, right? Wrong. Ruby found herself staring at the single largest and most terrifying mosquito she had ever seen, its body bloated with blood from whatever it had finished off. Several others were with it, and these ones weren't as full. The insects seemed to home in on Ruby like tracking missiles, forcing her out of the bush she'd hidden in and into combat.

Activating her semblance, Ruby sped time up for herself and watched in almost slow motion as the giant bugs swarmed at her. Lifting the gun up with her semblance enhanced speed, Ruby got off a full clip of bullets – each directly aimed at the eyes of these monsters. They'd die if she took out their heads, or so Ruby really, really hoped. Leaping back and grabbing another clip, Ruby deactivated her semblance to reload and prepared for further combat. It proved a wise decision, as Ruby had run out of ammo after taking down six of the eight bugs. The remaining two – one that was bloated, the other of which was far from it, charged her with a buzz of rage. Without using her semblance, Ruby managed to tag them both – the bloated one exploding as bullet tore through it's abdomen, the hungry one losing half a wing and spinning out of control as it tried to balance without. Managing to turn itself in her general direction mostly through luck, the massive mosquito attempted to bite Ruby. Her Aura stopped it from doing so, leaving the monster insect looking almost confused, right until she squashed its head with the but of her gun using semblance enhanced speed.

"Oh god that was so gross! Auuug, I can feel it through my pant leg, why meeeeee?"

Still griping about the unfairness of the world, Ruby looked from atop the hill down at the town of Barkwood. At the center of the town was an old logging mill that had been turned into the Great War Museum years before Ruby had been born. It all seemed to be pretty much intact, as far as Ruby could tell. Damaged, sure, with a few buildings caved in and what appeared to be a crashed bullhead near the old schoolhouse, but otherwise intact. The walls were still intact as well, ensuring the town would be safe from the Grimm – probably. Ruby supposed it was testament to the strength of the building materials and the need to Grimm-proof buildings that helped ensure a two-hundred-year-old town and wall were almost entirely intact, but she didn't know the details. She was a mechanic and huntress, not an architect!

Which made the distant sounds of gunfire and shouting all the more apparent to her combat-centered mind and abilities. This town was not as empty as Patch had been and not as peaceful as Gearworks had been. Naturally. With a slight huff, Ruby scowled at the road ahead of her. She still had about half an hour of walking to suffer through before she reached her destination. At least it was all downhill from here, and Ruby really hoped that would be literal only… but feared it would be figurative as well.

"Well… maybe they're just fighting Grimm? Or more giant bugs? I can hope…"

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"That's quite a bit o' caps for one little girl. What's the catch?"

"She's a Huntress. Not the kind that all died at Docktown, a real Huntress. From before the war."

"No shit? And such a cutie too! Heh, I think she'd sell for quite a pe- aaurg!"

"The rest of you should take him as an example of what happens to those who displease me. Do not displease me."

"I'll make sure to get her to you safely, Young Master. You can count on me."

"I'll leave her in your capable of hands then. Oh, and do me a favor… don't tell father about this yet. I want to surprise him."

"Understood, Young Master."

"I wonder if she'll ever find me here? I hope so. I really want to be free of this place. I can wait though. Like I always have."

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 **Well, another week/month/whatever, another chapter. Had some fun holidays myself. Hope they found you all well as well! Not much to say this chapter, just some more backstory, a small fight, and some foreshadowing because it's fun. I'll get the next chapter up whenever I do, and apologize in advance for any delays or waits you may suffer through...**

 **Episode 11 though. Damn. Part of me hopes RT kills Weiss just to prove they can kill main characters, the other is terrified that they will...**

 **'Till next time then!**


	4. Battles Old and New

**Hey everyone, it's only been what, 2 months since I updated this? Sorry for the long delay, Writers Block is a pain in the keister. I honestly wasn't expecting to have inspiration for this one, but then suddenly... inspiration from no where. For those who read SubRemnant, I hope to have a chapter out by Monday, but a combination of work, snow, and writers block have conspired against me on that account.**

 **On to the story mates, on to the story.**

* * *

Professor – she could almost hear the man screaming "DOCTOR!" across the centuries at her – Oobleck had made it very clear that villages or towns – in essence, civilization – collapses the people tend to band together for mutual support and safety. Dodging another poorly aimed bullet, Ruby couldn't help but feel a little cheated that she'd sat through that class only to have it be useless to her. Ruby sighed as she recalled arriving at the town and calling out to the people, asking what they were shooting at. She winced inwardly as she remembered the seventeen bullets her Aura had deflected before she bolted to the side and hid behind a building corner. Which brought her to where she was now, hiding behind an already damaged brick corner as she caught her breath, weighed her options, and apparently remembered her old teachers from Signal.

"Remember now children, always be aware of your surroundings. Quiet is almost always bad, because it means that wildlife is hiding and that whatever scared them off isn't making noise anymore."

Professor Port's words suddenly popped into Ruby's head even as she muttered them aloud and realized that the gunfire had stopped. The silence was deafening… right up until Ruby heard footsteps sneaking towards her position. Several sets of footsteps, coming from the same general direction. Ruby prepared herself, moving back as quietly as she could and hopping onto the edge of a dumpster for some height gain, as she waited for the first person to come around the corner. A slight scuffling sound from around the corner later, Ruby found herself looking down at a child – no older than twelve – who was in equal measure hesitant and terrified.

"Die!"

But mostly angry. Strangely so, Ruby thought, as her hesitation to attack a child younger than she had left her no option but to dodge the shot fired from the small rifle the child held. Ducking off the dumpster and towards the child, Ruby tackled said child to the ground and held him there. As the two others came around, guns out, Ruby cried out for a truce.

"I have a hostage! Don't shoot!"

The two grown men that had come around the corner didn't hesitate to open fire, forcing Ruby to use herself as a human shield for the younger child even as she gathered strength in her legs and rocketed up to the rooftop in a single potent leap. The child cried out in fear and possibly pain as they arrived at the rooftop, Ruby losing her grip on him and stumbling a short distance before falling over. The child managed to get to his feet first, leveling a shaking gun barrel at her as she gasped for breath and trembled, her Aura having only just barely held up.

"W-why did you save me?"

"It – urk – it's my job – gasp – to save people. Hueeeeee… I'm a Huntress after all."

As she caught her breath, Ruby subtly eyed up the kid. He was young – though maybe a little older than she had originally given him credit for, if the wiry muscles she could see through tears in his clothing were anything to go by – and clearly terrified. His black hair was long, rancid, and poorly cut. His skin was either tan or coated in a layer of dirt – possibly both – and had bruising already forming where he'd hit the ground when she tackled him and the rooftop when they'd landed. His eyes had started cold and vicious but had shifted to shock and confusion when she had declared herself a Huntress. His clothing, if it could be called that, was made up of a mixture of rags, scraps, and furs, all sown together with thick leather strips. All this Ruby was able to determine between looking his way and getting to his second question.

"How did you get us up here? And how did you stop those bullets?!"

"With – huee – my Semblance and – gasp – Aura."

"What and what now?"

Ruby then realized fully what her eyes had already told her. This kid had no Aura, and it was safe to assume that none of the people had shot at her had Aura either. That made this more complicated, as it meant she could kill them by accident if she wasn't very careful about it, and that any serious injuries would last for a very long time, if they healed at all. Ruby then realized that not only had his allies shot at him, but the kid hadn't even had an Aura to tank the incoming bullets. They had tried to kill one of their own just to kill her.

"Well?! Are you going to answer me or will I need to put a bu-"

"Aura is a physical manifestation of the soul, which when unlocked forms a defensive field around a person. Semblance is a person-unique ability based on their personality and desires and activated through one's Aura. Both are sustained by the soul, or the body, and need a lot of food to be sustained over time."

"…"

"Force Field and Super Powers."

"Oh."

"Yeah… so I'm gonna ask you some questions now, okay?"

"I have the gun!"

"So do I, but I can take a few bullets, can you?"

"No…"

"Who are you people? Why did you attack me? Why did they open fire on their own ally? Why are you, a child, even here?"

"Uh… we're raiders from the Stone Men. We attacked you because… well… that's what we do I guess? We're not allies, we're just raiders from the same tribe. Shooting each other is normal… and I'm not a child, I'm fourteen!"

Ruby blinked owlishly a few times as she mulled the new information over. Raiders that attack people for no real reason, the idea that a fourteen-year-old is an adult, and the idea that people from the same group just shoot each other for no reason… that was all a lot for her to wrap her mind around. She had a few more questions though and would make her final choices when they were answered.

"Who are you fighting here, and why?"

"That blond guy with the laser rifle and the shiny white sword is holed up with some others. They entered our territory and have stuff we want – food, ammo, meds, the like – so we decided to take it from them. They disagreed with that, and so we're taking it without their permission."

Ruby sighed both inwardly and aloud, shaking her head and trying to understand how people could even justify such idiocy. It was just… illogical, irrational, stupid, cruel, bloody, violent… and wrong. Being a Huntress – in training, the more pragmatic part of her mind whispered – she had little option but to try and stop the entire battle from happening, or failing that, to protect the people who were attacked, as these 'Stone Men' seemed to be bandits trying to steal from others, rather than people fighting monsters or defending themselves. That still left her with a rather glaring problem in the form of Oscar, their lack of Aura, and the question of how to deal with them without killing them. The latter would be the most difficult to deal with as she could leave Oscar on top of the building and couldn't do much about their Aura except wonder how that secret had been forgotten. Fighting them without killing them would be much more difficult, as even her most nonlethal methods of fighting were designed with the assumption they'd be used on people with the Aura to withstand a heavy blow to the head, and to help them heal up. Now that she thought about it, they probably didn't even have access to basic medical services to keep them healthy, so any injuries would probably result in death.

"Why is everything so damn complicated…?"

"What?"

"As a Huntress, I need to protect the people you're attacking. That makes this complicated."

"I'd like it noted that I surrender so please don't kill me."

"I'm not going to kill anyone. That's why it's hard."

"Why not?"

"Because killing is wrong, duh. Only evil people kill indiscriminately."

"Does… that make me evil?"

"First off, you're a child so it doesn't count-"

"I am NOT a child! I'm the same age you are!"

"- and second off, yes, it makes the Stone Men evil."

"Oh. Why though?"

"Why what?"

"Why is killing evil?"

"Because people only have one life, and it is inherently wrong to take that life from them."

"But why?"

"Would you want to be killed?"

"No?"

"Then why would you think killing other people is okay?"

"Well, what if they're trying to kill you?"

"Killing in self-defense is acceptable, though it shouldn't be the first response."

"Uh…"

Ruby regarded the kid, head tilted slightly to the side. Never before had she encountered someone who didn't understand that killing people is wrong, and that made explaining it difficult. A powerful explosion behind her reminded Ruby that she did not, in fact, have time to explain the morals of killing and fighting to some kid she'd just met. Shaking her head and sighing, Ruby turned her back to the boy.

"I'll explain later, right now I've got to go help those people. Sorry, uh, Oscar. Bye."

Ruby decided to just run directly to the building rather than fight any of the people outside it. Hopefully she could avoid needing to fight at all if she could just bypass them all and find a way to negotiate out of the battle. That would be best. She heard a few shouts of surprise from people outside the building and felt the wind and crackle of a powerful shot from a powerful laser rifle as she all but blurred forward with a trail of rose petals in her wake. She moved with such speed that she actually picked up lightweight debris from along the main street and pulled it with her a little. All in all, it took Ruby approximately three seconds to travel from the top of the building she'd left Oscar on all the way to the still-smoldering doors of the schoolhouse.

Upon arriving at the doors and passing into the dimly lit building, Ruby found herself facing a well-fortified cafeteria. The tables had been drawn back away from the door and set up into crude defensive wall with platforms for people to stand on behind it – as visible from places where the 'wall' had collapsed forward. These defenses, however, were long abandoned, or so the skeletons scattered throughout the cafeteria and along the wall seemed to imply. The current battle seemed to be taking place along the walls of the cafeteria, where a second floor extended outward enough for tables to have been placed upon it. Gunfire could be heard from those areas, interspersed with the powerful crackle of a laser rifle, and even as Ruby watched the corpse of one of the raiders fell from directly above her and broke wetly upon the ground. Ruby had seen dead bodies before – nobody living outside the cities did so without at least having seen the results of a Grimm raid, let alone a Huntress (in training) – but she'd never seen one with a burned-out hole in their chest before.

To take her mind off the corpse, Ruby rushed the nearest flight of stairs, reaching the second level with ease. That's where the easy part ended. Ruby found herself facing about a dozen raiders, all in various armors and with various guns, all facing her now. Before Ruby could even so much as open her mouth, they started shooting, forcing her to dodge and weave as she grabbed her trusty crowbar and prepared to attempt some non-lethal combat. Darting forward while deflecting bullets with the crowbar, Ruby reached the first enemy, a woman with an eyepatch and a snarl on her face and brought the crowbar directly into her stomach. The rounded end connected, the woman let out a blast of air she'd had in her lungs, and Ruby hammered her knee into the woman's chest as she bent over from the stomach impact. This lifted her off the ground entirely and made Ruby's kick all the more effective when it connected with her shoulder.

By the time she hit the wall and was knocked out Ruby had already reached her second opponent, who came in the form of a lanky man with a pistol in one hand and a knife in the other. Ducking under a bullet, Ruby snatched the man's arm as he whipped the knife at her face and twisted it, dislocated the elbow. As he cried out in agony and dropped the knife, Ruby snatched it up and rammed him in the face with the butt of the weapon, knocking him out. Continuing from the man, Ruby slashed the knife across an older woman's face, knocking her back even as she spun and walloped the woman in the back of the head with her crowbar. The woman fell to the ground without Ruby noticing as she was already engaging her next opponent.

Ruby's fourth, fifth, and sixth enemies went down without issue, and realizing how utterly outmatched they were, the remaining three enemies fled from the little reaper. Content knowing that she ended the battle without any fatalities, Ruby walked over to the door they'd been gathered around. Labeled "Principal's Office" the door led to a room that likely sat above the main entrance, the door was steel, and the room probably doubled as a refuge in case of Grimm attacks prior to the war. A few scratches and even a dent served to show that the raiders had been trying to break into the room, which was more than enough reason for Ruby to assume that it was the location that the "blond guy with the laser rifle" and his group had holed up in. Ruby decided to do the polite thing and knock.

"Hello!? Anyone in there? I took down the bandi- ah, raiders that were out here!"

"And why should I trust you?!"

The voice was masculine, gruff, tired, and clearly disbelieving of her statement. Ruby paused, not actually sure how to convince the man that she was a friendly, when she heard a second voice, but too quiet to make out the words spoken.

"Where are you from?"

"Uh… the town of Patch. More recently, Vault one-eleven, but that's not really my home so…"

A moment of silence, followed by the door opening up and revealing a young man with light blond hair and eyes bluer than anything Ruby had ever seen before. The man was wearing a heavy patched and resewn hoody with a crude metal chest plate and shoulder pieces to match. Over the chest plate was a bright, if dirty, blue sash and a deep red vest. A pair of worn black boots and crude leather gloves completed an "apocalypse knight" type of outfit. In the mans hands was a laser rifle that needed repairs desperately, while at the mans hip was a brilliant white sheath with an impressive sword held within. The man coughed once, and Ruby realized she'd been staring at the gun and sword a bit too long.

"Oh sorry. I was, uh, distracted a bit. By your gun. And the sword too. I, uh… I like weapons."

"Right… well, as I had just said, I'm Jaune Arc, Huntsman. I w-"

"You're a Huntsman?! That is so cool! I'm Ruby, Ruby Rose! I'm a Huntsman too! Well, not a Huntsman, a Huntress, but the point is the same. Oh, I'd show you my weapon but I had to leave it in the Vault."

Jaune stared at Ruby like she had grown an extra head and tilted his to the side.

"Oh sorry I shouldn't interrupt… my bad… uh… go on, I guess?"

"Right… well, the rest doesn't really matter. You helped us, and I can't begrudge you that. I'd introduce everyone, but I saw more raiders gathering in the town. You willing to help us fight them off?"

"Sure. I wish I had a better weapon though…"

At this moment, another man stepped up, offering Ruby a hand to shake while introducing himself.

"We do have one weapon…"

"We can't get it to work though, so it's useless. Why even bring it up?"

"She literally just said she's a Huntress, and she also mentioned a vault. Maybe she knows how to get it to work?"

"I'm right here you know. Let me see it, I can do anything if I have a weapon."

"Okay, we put it in the storage locker over here just in case we, well… lost. Give me a moment to get it open…"

While waiting for the man to grab the weapon from storage locker, Ruby looked over the group with her. Besides the blond knight Jaune, there were five people in the room. Next to the black-haired man with the sideburns was getting the weapon, an elderly woman wearing thick glasses and robes that look like they came from Mistral at one point is sitting in a chair, watching Ruby with a careful eye. Sitting on the floor in a corner is a younger man with deep black hair, light brown eyes, and a pair of horns growing from his forehead. He's wearing overalls and a dirty white shirt with a pair of leather boots and gloves. Leaning on the wall next to him is a young woman with dark brown hair, brown eyes, and wearing a sleeveless vest over a dirty gray shirt. She is armed with a pistol holstered at her hip and what appears to be a machete. Looking back at Ruby with wide eyes is a boy with dark brown hair and light brown eyes, as well as smaller versions of the horns found on the man resting on the floor. He's wearing an oversized leather jacket and a pair of worn jeans and seems to be considering whether or not to talk to Ruby.

Ruby was just about to speak to him first when the man with the sideburns gets the storage locker back open after his third try. A little 'aha!' and a sudden click herald the locker being opened, and he pulls something out and turns towards Ruby.

"This is the weapon. It's an old mechashift weapon from before the – you okay kid?"

Ruby could only stare at the weapon in question, for it was her father's own scythe: Harbinger.

* * *

 **And so we have the rewrite for Ch4! It ends on the same note as Chapter 4 did originally, but is otherwise pretty much entirely different. We've met Jaune and Oscar, as well as three other characters from the show - all of them minor, and two of them unnamed and just ripped off from RT because I figured it wouldn't hurt right? *glances side to side for lawyers* I do not own RWBY or any characters from it. Or Fallout for that matter. Props to the people who make it all happen. Never gonna disclaimer anything again though, that should be a given for a fanfiction.**

 **I'll have another chapter out whenever I get to writing it. Inspiration is a pain to find, so I can't promise specific dates. I can promise the chapters won't suck though, like the originals did. We've only got one more chapter rewrite and then the plot should begin to grind forward again.**

 **Until next time,**

 **~ TRP**


	5. Huntress

**And here we are with another chapter of RWBY: New Remnant. Almost caught up with the original write up plot wise, and one chapter larger than the original. I'd like to think it's also better written lol**

* * *

It was impossible. Harbinger shouldn't be on Patch; her father had been halfway around the world in Anima when everything went to ruin. How did it get all the way to Patch, and how did it end up in the hands of these… unknowns, these strangers?! Questions for later, right now she had a job to do.

"Kid?"

"Sorry, I zoned out for a moment. What do you know about that weapon?"

"It's called Justice and it expands into a sword. We also found a gun mechanism, but we've never been able to get it to work. Justice has been passed through the Huntsmen for nearly two centuries now."

"I see. Well, give it to me. I can use it."

"You sure about this kid?"

"Yes. Give it to me."

The blond man, Jaune, frowned at her even as the rest of his group seemed a little apprehensive of the situation. Probably wondering how she could be so certain, but Ruby knew full well how to use a weapon her father had helped her train with. She'd seen it in action countless times, and she'd even used it a few times before she built Crescent Rose. The moment they gave it to her, Ruby started a checkup on Harbinger.

"Joins clear of debris, blade is still sharp after all these years, gears seem to be intact and functional, power supply is intact but drained gonna need to use Aura to shift it, no ammo I'm gonna need to shift it to blank shots…"

Ruby delved into the ancient weapon, making sure every piece of it was fully functional before she was willing to risk trying to shift it over into it's sword form, let alone the scythe form. As she did, Ruby heard quiet gasps and murmurs from the group she was planning to help. Looking up, silver eyes met the wide and stunned eyes of six people who couldn't have been more shocked if she'd grown a second and third head. Ruby blinked a few times and glanced down at the weapon in her hands, realizing she'd just started talking to herself while operating a weapon older than anyone currently alive in that room as if she'd been born holding it.

"Uh… I can explain?"

"Kid, if you can get that old thing working just by touching it, you don't need to explain a damn thing."

"Okay?"

Before anything more could be said, a loud series of bangs and thumps could be heard below, accompanied by some very impressive swearing that had Ruby blushing and covering her ears.

"It seems the raiders are back."

"What gave that away?"

Ruby snorted at the banter between the apocalypse knight and sideburns, before turning and heading to the door. Preparing to expand Harbinger into its scythe form, she reached for the knob, only for her hand to be snagged by the old woman. Turning and giving a solid glare, Ruby was met with sharp blue eyes framed by gray hair with streaks of light brown hinting at the original color.

"Just a warning before you go out there… these raiders, they're not gonna be the final enemy. Something… red eyes… is coming. Drawn by hate, by the anger and the fear. Many eyes. Too many eyes. You be careful okay? The reaper can still be killed."

"Uh. Okay. I'll do my best."

"That's all anyone can ask of you, kid. I'll provide fire support when I can, but this your show."

"Thanks, Jaune. I'll get to it then."

Ruby stepped out the door, followed by the knight in rusted armor, and faced the raiders. She narrowed her silver eyes, leaned forward, and gripped her weapon. These raider people weren't the final enemy, and the only creatures she knew of with red eyes were the Grimm. The situation was very, very bad, and as a Huntress she needed to diffuse this if at all possible.

"Jaune, don't shoot unless I attack okay? I want to try something. And when you do shoot, shoot to disable, not to kill. Consider it a condition for my continued aid."

"But they-!"

"Nope. You do it my way or you stay inside the room."

"I'll… do my best."

The whispered conversation came to an end as the raiders spotted them. Within seconds, every gun was leveled at Ruby and Jaune, the latter of whom shivered and lifted his own weapon but didn't shoot yet. Ruby stepped in front of Jaune, the sword form of Harbinger flicking to the side with a slight crack as it broke the speed of sound, and she regarded her potential enemies. One of them fired a quick spray from his machine gun, only for even Jaune's jaw to drop down as she casually deflected every single bullet with a twirl of her weapon and a slight smirk.

"You can't hurt me. Not anymore at least. So how about we talk instead?"

"And why the hell would you want to talk?! And why should we?!"

"I just deflected a spray of bullets from the single most ineptly designed machine gun I've ever seen. I could easily kill the lot of you in seconds if it came to it. But I don't want to. And you don't want me to."

The bandits glanced at each other, clearly remembering how easily she had deflected the small mass of bullets that were fired her way by the trigger-happy guy on their team. They also noted the corpses Ruby had left in her wake during the first battle and came to a conclusion: this was not a fight they could win. Ruby, meanwhile, was hoping they didn't call her bluff, as she most certainly wouldn't kill any of them even if they attacked her. She just hoped it wouldn't come to that.

"Very well. Why do you want to talk though? Why not just kill all of us?"

"I'm a Huntress, not a butcher. I've been raised not to kill people when it can be avoided."

"So, you're a coward?"

"No, I'm a Huntress. The difference is that cowards attack people who are weaker than them, while a Huntress fights to protect those who are weaker than them."

"Then why'd you kill that woman huh? If you're so high and mighty, why'd you snuff out her life?"

"What are you… talking about… oh…"

Ruby stared blankly at the woman she had slashed across the face. The rather large pool of blood that was centered on said face was only one of the signs that she was dead – a much better sign of her death was the fact that the back of her head was caved in enough that bone and bits of brain could be seen. Ruby whimpered a little and took a step back, horrified at what she had done. Sensing weakness and realizing she wasn't used to killing – for whatever reason – the bandits opened fire on Ruby specifically, leaving the rusty knight for later. The hail of bullets hammered into her, only for the little reaper to shrug them off and snap out of her daze at the same time.

"Jaune, start shooting! Remember my conditions!"

Ruby started deflecting bullets as Jaune ducked into what little cover there was and began taking well-aimed shots at people's hands, trying to blow the guns right out of them. He even succeeded a few times, but most shots either struck the body or missed entirely. His laser rifle, while powerful, was never meant to be the most accurate weapon ever created. Jaune paused in his firing as he stared at the red-cloaked girl all but dancing through the mass of angry raiders. A spin, a duck, a bow, a tilt, all accompanied by whacks and thuds and grunts of pain from raiders as she knocked weapons out of hands, broke arms, knocked people out, and otherwise went about demolishing every raider she faced in close combat without killing most of them. Despite her best efforts, however, several of the raiders took nasty blows in ways they couldn't have survived – a broken neck here, a crushed skull there, a few deep lacerations that would bleed them out – but for the most part the girl was truly aiming for non-lethal combat. It was impressive, honestly, and even more so that she was able to do it without seeming to take any hits herself.

All too rapidly the battle ended. Well, battle would be generous, it was a one-sided massacre with very few corpses left behind in the wake. This girl was terrifying as an enemy, and as Jaune's survivors crept out of hiding and saw the defeated raiders, the lot of them looked back to Ruby, just a bit out of breath and resting herself on the sword she now carried, with nothing short of awe. Ruby didn't notice, as she was now turning back to one of the least injured raiders.

"Jaune, can you organize your group to take their weapons? And… to handle any bodies? I don't know what you do with remains, but I've been taught to burn the dead."

"Uh. Sure. What about you?"

"The old woman there-"

"Mamma Miku. And I'm not a day over sixty."

"Right, Mamma Miku, who is totally not old, warned me that there's a Grimm hoard in bound. I specialize in Grimm, so I'll be the one handling that, okay?"

"You su-"

"Yes. I'm a Huntress. Why do I keep needing to tell people that?"

Ruby strode out of the building, not noticing the looks of confusion, awe, and respect that statement had earned her from all involved. Even the few bandits still aware of the world around them had to hand it to her, walking out alone into what she considered a Grimm attack was either suicide or true courage, and it didn't seem like the former. But Ruby noticed none of that, as she was already out of the building. There were no bandits or hostiles that Ruby could see anymore, it seemed everyone was inside the old schoolhouse complex. That made this easier by far. Not noticing Oscar watching from his rooftop hiding place, nor noticing the prisoners and their former victims peaking out through the windows of the school, Ruby shifted Harbinger into it's scythe mode.

And then she closed her eyes, cocked her head to the side, and listened in on the world around her. With the silence of this empty world, hearing the Grimm was by no means difficult. They had never been quiet, and without background noise to muffle them they stood out more than ever. Soon, the snarls, grows, and footsteps could be heard by everyone in the town. Jaune shivered, Oscar whimpered, and survivor and prisoner alike were reminded that the Grimm are a major threat even now with them weakened by the radiation. But one person there wasn't even worried, at least not openly. A Huntress could afford to show no fear, for if the guardians of the people were afraid than what hope did the people have?

The first of the Grimm entered Jaune's line of sight. It was a boarbatusk about the size of a large dog, accompanied moments later by dozens more, all charging towards the lone girl. In the two centuries since they had last faced a Huntress, the Grimm had forgotten to fear them. They had forgotten that a human alone was far more dangerous than a human in a group. They would remember though. Ruby would remind them of this. Still stationary even as more Grimm, beowolves, small deathstalkers, ursa minor and major, nevermore, creeps, even a few griffons had decided to join in, all drawn by the fighting, chaos, and battle. Just as everyone was prepared to lose hope in her, Ruby moved.

And then the Grimm began to die.

* * *

Duck, cut, dodge, kick, jump, spin, duck, stab, spin, cut, dodge, slice, stab, block. Her movements were precise, accurate, absolute. No wasted energy, no lost momentum, no tripped feet, or mistaken stumbles. Ruby was in full battle mode, ignoring everything except the fight itself. This was what she had spent her entire life training for, why she chose to fight. Hidden in the building were people she needed to protect, that she had a duty to keep safe, and she would not fail in her duty. For every Grimm that attacked her there was a retaliatory strike, for every Grimm that fell two more rose, and Ruby simply increased her speed a little to keep up. The Grimm would die. That was her job, after all.

The tempo of battle steadily increased more Grimm reached the front lines. Never missing a beat, Ruby continued to keep up, ignoring her body telling her that she was reaching her limits, that she even had limits to begin with. Activating her semblance, Ruby darted forward, cleft a large deathstalker in half, and then rotated to the side and beheaded an Ursa Major. Jumping off the still-disintegrating corpse of the deathstalker, she took a nevermore out of the sky, dewinged several griffons, and then mimicked an old attack her uncle used by switching to sword mode and hammering the blade against the ground to create an Aura-backed shockwave. Nearly fifty Grimm died in the shockwave alone, but there were still nearly a hundred more left in the hoard and Ruby was no longer able to ignore her limits. That shockwave took more than she'd thought.

Staggering to her feet and switching back to the scythe mode, Ruby began her dance of death again. A little wobbly, a little lest powerful and absolute, but still more than enough for these shrunken Grimm. The little Grimm reaper continued her ruthless rampage through the hoard, continued to break through the Grimm in all their numbers.

And then she couldn't anymore.

Harbinger didn't have the heavy rounds that Crescent Rose fired, it was balanced differently, and it was built for a different style of combat from her own. Despite her best efforts, Ruby was not able to adapt herself fully to her father's weapon and lost her balance. The scythe clipped the ground and lost the battle of force, launching Ruby over the battlefield and into a shop front. Managing to get to her feet just in time to avoid a beowolf alpha, Ruby bisected it with the sword form of Harbinger, no longer able to handle the movements needed for a scythe. This proved to be a very good choice, as it allowed her to move faster and with greater agility than the larger and bulkier scythe form.

Ruby continued her dance for another few minutes before the Grimm began to flee. Their numbers had been broken here, from nearly two hundred to less than thirty, this hoard was now just a small band of survivors that had learned what had been forgotten: lone humans in colorful outfits are very poor targets for a good hunt. Ruby managed to stay standing just long enough for the last of the Grimm to vanish out of the town and into the overgrown forest around it before dropping to her knees and passing out onto the street.

* * *

Never in his life had Oscar seen something so amazing and so terrifying at the same time. Grimm were weak, but they had strength in numbers – it was why raiders like his group never stayed in one place within their territory very long, they would draw too many Grimm to their location. But here? This single little girl who said that killing was bad and had saved his life without a good reason? She'd killed more Grimm in a single battle than Oscar had seen in his entire life. The few Grimm that survived had fled – FLED – from the girl who said it was her job to save people. And she had just passed out onto the street.

Even as Oscar watched, the blond knight rushed out of the schoolhouse, followed by not only the travelers that the Stone Men had been gunning for but also a lot of the Stone Men themselves – albeit without their weapons or armor. So she had refused to kill them after all… that was unexpected. Sure, people sometimes talked big, but this was the first time Oscar had ever seen someone actually go through with it. As he mulled that over, Oscar noticed the other surviving Stone Men coming out of hiding in the town. About a half dozen of them, from the looks of it, and they were now confronting the blond knight. Without the numbers to simply overwhelm their target, it was obvious to Oscar that they were stalling for time or trying to pull some sly stunt.

It wasn't until one of them managed to get close to the girl in red that Oscar, and the knight, realized what was up. Oscar started to move towards the unfolding scene in front of him. The red girl who'd saved his life was now officially being held hostage by the leader of the Stone Men, and the blond knight was balking at risking her life. Oscar could hear snippets as he rushed over to the group.

"-saved all our skins and you'd kill her to steal from us?!"

"Yep. You give me everything you got, and I'll let you live. Her too."

"You're a real piece of work you know that?"

"I'm alive. Not everyone gets to be so lucky."

Oscar narrowed his eyes and thought about the situation for a moment. All of his old instincts were telling him that if the blond knight was really going to just give up to save someone else he deserved to lose… but then the girls words shoved themselves back into his head. She'd helped those people because that's what a Huntress did. She'd helped him for the same reason. He owed her his life, and seeing that she had kept true to her ideals… Oscar lifted his pipe rifle up and blew the shotgun out of his boss' hand.

"Just stop it Stoneskin. This fight is over, and she won."

"You little shit! Kill him!"

For a moment, nobody moved. Then the blond knight drew his sword in a single fluid movement and beheaded Stoneskin, and the few Stone Men that were still armed surrendered without any further fighting. Oscar moved back and away a little bit, trying to make himself small so he wouldn't be hurt by any of the people here. The only one he could trust was the girl in red, and she was still cold.

"You, kid."

"Yeep!"

"Why'd you intervene? You look like one of theirs."

"Because… because she helped me. Saved me. I want to be like that, to help people. I wanna be a Huntress like her."

* * *

 **Isn't Oscar just precious? I mean he was a murderous raider, but now he's just adorable.**

 **More seriously, I've got some explanations here for questions I think you'll be asking. Here goes:**

 **1) Is Qrow really Ruby's dad? Well, not in cannon, but this story won't work with Taiyang being Ruby's dad, so I decided to make Qrow her father. Got an issue with that? Suck it, I'm the author! MWAHAHAAAHAHAAAA! Besides, I'm like 85% sure that Qrow was holding a candle for Summer. No Taiyang, no problemo.**

 **2) How did Ruby take out around 200 Grimm on her own? Well, as has been stated in-story, the Grimm are weakened by the radiation. They are stunted, and don't have as much armor & strength as they would normally. A beowolf will still be larger than a human, but only about as large as a Super-Mutant, rather than standing 2-3 times the height of most humans. This will be explained in more detail later when Ruby starts learning.**

 **3) When did Oscar decide to be a Huntress (daww, so cute)? He's lived his life in what amounts to a band of murderers. None of them would ever bother to save him at their own risk, or even at no risk at all. But Ruby did. That left an impact, and on more than just Oscar. Ruby is something the Wasteland hasn't seen in around 2 centuries: a real hero who has ideals they aren't willing to back down from. She's gonna break the wasteland.**

 **4) Raiders that aren't mindlessly killing?! How? I've always felt it annoying that most raiders can't be reasoned with. I mean honestly, "Oh, there's like 4 of us and this guy's wearing X-01 Power Armor, is armed to the literal teeth, and just snuffed like twelve super mutants and a deathclaw. We can totally take him!" Sheesh. So this is more realistic.**

 **Anyway, that's enough self-Q &A. **

**I've now got 2 RWBY-Fallout Crossovers running, but don't worry too much! This one already had the overall plot detailed out so the biggest work here is turning bullet points into a coherent story. Details are subject to change, but not a ton of it. Meanwhile, the other story is primarily the brainchild of Shadowstorm17, with me providing feedback and converting that story from bullet points to a coherent story as well. I shouldn't have any issues keeping both up, and honestly 'Trading One World for Another' (TOW4A) will probably help inspire me to keep up on RWBY: New Remnant.**

 **To those who miss SubRemnant, I've crashed into a wall of Writers Block on that, but I refuse to abandon any of my fictions, so it WILL be updated once I get this WB out of my system.**

 **Anyway, have a lovely time and I hope you enjoyed the read.**

 **PS. To the guest that keeps leaving negative reviews: Either provide useful feedback or fuck is all.**

 **~Mech**


	6. Knowledge of Power

**Hello again. It'sa me, Mechario! But more seriously, here's the first real update to Fallout: New Remnant in what, 6 months? Sorry it's not 3k words, I've decided I'm not going for wordcount anymore but will instead end chapters where I think they should end.**

* * *

"…ake up then?"

"Yeah, pretty much. She's the one who saved us, and neither side trusts the other – for good reason – so we can't exactly lead you to the place we want to make our home."

"Can't really blame you for tha- wait, she's waking up!"

"You sure? Looks pretty out of it to me."

"Her eyelids fluttered, I know what I saw!"

"Okay, yeesh."

Ruby managed to win the war with her own eyelids after a struggle to be remembered for generations to see sideburns and some random woman she didn't recognize. Both were looking at her intently and it was actually a little awkward for her until she remembered what had been going on when she was last aware of the world. Jolting upright and then instantly regretting the choice as the pain hit her like an Ursa.

"Uuuuurg… Grimm… happened?"

"You killed most of them and the rest ran away and it was amazing! Can I learn how to fight like that?!"

"Uh? Who are you?"

The man snorted and introduced himself as Tukson. The woman on the other hand – in her mid-twenties if Ruby could tell it right – paused, glancing at Ruby with deep green eyes, coughed awkwardly into a patched gray sleeve before backing up a little and standing at her full height. This allowed Ruby to see that she wore a dirty lavender longcoat over a set of dirty gray slacks with an equally gray and equally dirty sweatshirt – a few patches and some holes indicating age and use – with crude and mildly rusted metal plate armor over her forearms, chest, and legs. Her hair looked like it could have been violet, but the dirt caked into it made determining hair color rather difficult.

"I'm Nebula. Uh. Nice to meet you?"

"Uh. Okay. Nice to meet you as well, Nebula. I'm Ruby, uh, Ruby Rose."

"That was painful to watch, you know?"

"Oh shut up."

"You two getting it on in there or what?!"

The deep male voice made both Tukson and Nebula jump with an (amusingly adorable and utterly out of place, in Tukson's case) eep and then a surprisingly in depth explanation of what's going to happen to "Bolin" (whoever that was) if he didn't shut up in the next ten seconds or so. Laughing, a tall man with a sleeveless denim vest over a yellow t-shit. At this point Ruby had stopped even noting that it was dirty as all hell and needed about twenty years in a washing machine before it could be safely worn again, as that seemed to be a given for people these days. Was it that hard to stay clean? Regardless, the man had black hair and… glowing amber eyes? And skin that was… melted off… like that thing she'd had to kill back in Patch.

Ruby stumbled off the bed a two yelps – the first of fear, the second of pain as she landed on her head with low aura. Ignoring the embarrassment and the pain alike, she scrambled off to a corner staring at this 'Bolin' person. He seemed started at first, then disappointed, then angry.

"Well sorry for being ug-"

"What are you?!"

"What?"

"How do you not know what a ghoul is?"

"Vaulter, remember?"

"She's a Vaulter? And took down all those Grimm?"

"Claims to be a Huntress. I'm thinkin' the Vault she was in somehow maintained the old world Hunters… maybe. She had Aura, that much I know."

"Well yeah, everyone who's supposed to fight Grimm has Aura!"

The group of three regarded her like she'd grown another head – what was with people and giving her looks like that? – and then glanced at each other.

"Neb, can you go get the group? We'll have Ruby here out in a few moments, just gotta do a quick checkup on her."

"Sure thing, Boli."

"Don't call me that."

"Sorry, sorry~"

"You know she isn't actually sorry, right?"

"Yeah, but if she fakes it hard enough it may become sincere."

"Pfft."

"At least I didn't fall in love with someone who was trying to kill me yesterday."

"I'm not in love."

"Suuuuuure."

"Uh?"

"Oh right, sorry, so we need you to real quick…"

* * *

While Ruby was finishing her little checkup, Nebula headed out to where her new "boss" was located. The man wasn't as cruel or commanding as Stoneskin, but his strength was real and his experience was by no means minimal. He could be relied on, so long as they followed his orders. 'Course, if the girl decided not to follow his orders they'd kill him and move on, but for now they were trusting the boy when he said that she wouldn't do that and would be angry if they did.

"Yo, boss. She's awake. Finishing up her checkup now. Having Tukson there definitely prevented her from going on a panicked rampage, considering how scared of Bolin she was. Didn't even know what a ghoul is. Definitely from a Vault."

"Yeah, we figured that much already, but it's good to have confirmation. She knows we're gonna be asking her questions right?"

"Oh yeah. I forgot to mention that. Sorry."

"Naturally…"

Nothing else to do, Jaune turned to observe the people who remained with him. The three members of the Long family, Mama Miku, and then Tukson was with Ruby and Bolin. Aside from those five, the remaining four people were strangers to him. A man in dirty purple with black and gray hair and eyes the color of his shirt – Brawnz, he remembered – stood next to a shorter woman in green with hair that could only have been produced in a Vault – May, a sniper, his mind provided quietly. Then there was Nebula, pulling out a cigarette to pass the time, and the boy Oscar who had intervened before announcing his desire to be a Huntress. Throw in Tukson and Bolin and that was five potential hostiles for his five allies – not that it would matter. If Ruby decided to help them all the firepower in the world wouldn't do any good, if she decided to help Jaune than all their numbers would mean nothing.

The rest of the Stone Men had decided to bail on this mess and left, taking their weapons but nothing else. They didn't want to risk bringing the little reaper down upon them any more than Jaune did. Speaking of the young girl, here she came now. He instinctively stood taller and stiffer, trying and failing to control his fear of what she could do. The girl, Ruby, looked so… small. Frail. Like she could be blown away by a meek breeze.

Hard to believe she could kill everyone there in seconds or less.

"So… uh… what now?"

Very hard to believe she could kill them all in seconds or less.

"We've got some questions for ya – I hope you understand, what you did… it impressed us, but it also leaves us wanting to know how you did it."

This would be the biggest test. Would she be willing to talk? Would she try to keep it a secret? Was it a secret? Was she a servant of the New Kingdom? Would she become their enemy-

"Okay. What do you want to know?"

Huh.

"Well, first off, the boy here, Oscar, says you spoke of Aura. What is this Aura, and how does it allow you do to these things?"

Ruby frowned, and everyone stiffened a little. Was this frown their only warning? Or was it something more sinister?

"Aura is the physical manifestation of the soul itself. It uses energy – from the body – to support itself, but even if you are poisoned or starving you can still generate an Aura field to protect yourself. Despite this, using too much Aura can lead to exhaustion and even death. It's mostly defensive, but also works to strengthen bones, muscle, skin, and the natural functions of the body. It can heal you as well."

Huh. That was… actually a very good explanation. Jaune assumed. He didn't know anything about Aura – the few who did tended to keep the information to themselves, either citing the danger is can pose if it becomes common knowledge or just not wanting to share it with others. Well, on to the next question…

"And where did you learn about Aura?"

"Signal Academy, from Professor Port."

"Signal… Never heard of it. Where was it?"

"Well… actually… the better question is 'When was it'."

"What do you mean?"

"I… I was special. Part of an ancient bloodline of warriors who had developed a natural power – magic, real magic not dust or semblance magic – that was uniquely powerful against the Creatures of Grimm. I don't know much else about the power, aside from it's real-ness. So… so the Kingdom of Vale built a vault, Vault one-eleven, for the sole purpose of housing every individual on Remnant who had silver eyes. There were twelve of us. We were… frozen, for the duration of the war."

"Wait wait, you mean you're pre-war? Like, you remember what all this looked like when it was new?!"

"Holy shit… that's like… damn."

"Must be a hell of a shock, waking up to… this."

"Wait, that means there's more of you right?"

"Not anymore…"

"What do you…?"

"Something went wrong. We were told we'd be there for twenty-five years, but… well it's been a bit longer than twenty-five years. And the system only thawed us because of a malfunction. I was the… the only one to survive."

"Oh gods… that's…"

"Terrible. Horrific. And completely in line with Vault-Tec. Everything they've built has failed in some horrific way, from what I've seen. Either damaged or sabotaged or simply doomed from the start."

"That's not true, there's that one Vault over by the old airfield…"

"Anyway! Ruby, I am deeply sorry for your loss. I would love nothing more than to let you rest, but I have a few more questions for you."

"That's fine. I'm… coping, I guess."

"Alright then. What do you plan to do now?"

"I was looking for people. I need to learn about this world I've woken up into… I can teach you about Aura and even unlock yours if you can teach me about the post-war world."

"That… would be grand."

"Anything else?"

"Yeah, you said you came from Patch. Was it… occupied? Damaged?"

"No, just very overgrown and very old."

"Okay, thank you. I'll take you up on the offer about Aura later – for now, I have more people to take care of, can you take us to Patch?"

"S-sure. There's some dogs living in the ruins – don't hurt them. They're friendly."

"Of course kiddo. Of course."

* * *

 **So, not much to say here. Mostly just going over some basic stuff for ya'll. Backstory stuff, explanations stuff, the like. Follow, Fav, Review - whatever ya want. I'll be aiming to update Trading One World for Another on Monday. Cya then.**

 **Oh, and sorry for no update on RotS. That's a fic for when I get stuck on other fics, not meant to be updated regularly.**

 **~ Mecharic**


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